WOMEN, RESISTANCE AND THE CREATION OF NEW GENDERED FRONTIERS IN THE MAKING OF MODERN LIBYA, 1890-1980 A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History By Katrina Elizabeth Anderson Yeaw, M.A. Washington, D.C. November 15, 2017 Copyright 2017 by Katrina Elizabeth Anderson Yeaw All Rights Reserved ii WOMEN, RESISTANCE AND THE CREATION OF NEW GENDERED FRONTIERS IN THE MAKING OF MODERN LIBYA, 1890-1980 Katrina Elizabeth Anderson Yeaw, M.A. Thesis Advisor: Judith E. Tucker, Ph.D. ABSTRACT Women, Resistance and the Creation of New Gendered Frontiers in the Making of Modern Libya, 1890-1980 examines the gendered transformation in the territory that became Libya from the late Ottoman period until after independence. Questioning the official version of Libyan nationalism that understood colonialism as a masculine, and at times violent, interaction between male Italian colonists, soldiers, and administrators and colonized men, I demonstrate the multi-faceted ways in which Libyan women interacted with the modernizing Ottoman, Italian and later British states, whether through the introduction of new forms of education, the policing of community boundaries, or through the military suppression of armed resistance. I found that European colonial governance dismantled existing local institutions including the Ottoman education system. Consequently, Italian policies undermined previous Ottoman attempts at modernizing reforms while distorting many of the existing social structures. My dissertation utilizes a variety of Arabic and Italian sources from archives in Italy, the US, and the UK. In addition, it incorporates oral history interviews collected by the Libyan Studies Center in Tripoli. Chapter One investigates attitudes about sexual relationships between European men and Libyan women through an analysis of cases that came before Italian military tribunals in Tripoli and Benghazi. Chapter Two on Italian state education for girls analyzes the way the Italians dismantled the existing Ottoman education system for women while excluding women from Italian schools. Chapter Three focuses on missionary education for girls and its support of racial segregation in the colony. Chapter Four combines studies of institutional colonial violence with gender theory to analyze the ways in which women opposed Italian practices. Finally, Chapter Five evaluates the way in which the colonial period was remembered by Libyan women through a reading of postcolonial Libyan female writers. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is the product of countless hours of research and writing but also the support and encouragement from peers, colleagues, friends, and family. Foremost among them are my advisors and committee members. My mentor, Judith Tucker, who helped guide me in the field of Middle East history and shaped me into the gender historian that I am today. Her encouragement over the years has been invaluable. I am indebted to Osama Abi-Mershed, Aviel Roshwald, Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Ali Ahmida for their generosity and guidance throughout this process. Without their insights and help, this project would not have been possible. At Georgetown University, I would also like to thank Meredith McKittrick, James Collins, Tomasso Astarita and Katherine Benton-Cohen for their assistance and patience. This project was made possible by the tireless work of Jan Liverance, Miriam Davis, and Carolina Madinaveitia. It is difficult to imagine my time at Georgetown University without the discussions and collaboration with Elena Abbott, Brian Taylor, Stephanie Taylor, Meredith Denning, Fatih Çalışır, Jonathan Sicotte, Catherine Hull, Liza Raykhlina, Chris Gratien, Graham Cornwell, Eric Gettig, Graham Pitts, Alissa Walter, Nick Danforth, and Kate Dannies. In particular, I am appreciative of Soha el Achi, Michael Polczynski, Michael Brill, and Laura Goffman, who were kind enough to read and comment on drafts of this manuscript. Georgetown University’s Graduate School and History Department funded the research and writing of this thesis through several grants and scholarships. The project originated before my time at Georgetown University. During my tenure at the San Francisco State University, Chris Chekuri, Maziar Behrooz, Sarah Curtis, and Fred Astren helped to lay the ground work for this project. Notably, I would like to thank Trevor Getz in whose course I first discovered post-colonialism, the historian Jan Vansina and a reference to the Libyan Studies Center. Without this serendipitous discovery, I probably would not be a historian of Libya. I would also like to thank Jason Smith, John Elrick, Brian Bartell, and Fakhra Shah for their support and friendship. My archival research would not have been possible without various forms of institutional support. I am indebted to Luis Manuel Cuña Ramos, Giovanni Fosci, Sister Lucy Joseph, Sister Zina, Sister Paola, Antonio Maiuri, Daniela Loyola, Paola Busonero, Giancarlo Colombo, Stefania Ruggeri, and many others for helping me to navigate their various institutions’ archives and libraries throughout my research in Italy. I am also grateful for the friendship of Luca Saletti and Andrea Carteny and many cups of coffee. During my academic career, I have had the pleasure of receiving help from many scholars. Sarah Scalenghe, Eileen Ryan, Julia Clancy-Smith, Barbara Spadaro, Simona Berhe, and Mia Fuller have generously shared their knowledge and expertise throughout the research and writing process. I would also like to thank the Jehle family for their love, support, and time over the years as well as my mother, Gretjen Anderson, and my brother, Daniel Yeaw, for their encouragement. Finally, I would like to thank my husband and companion, Greg Jehle. This project has taken me away from him both mentally and physically many times, but he is always awaiting my return to iv make our time together that much sweeter. Without his love and reassurance, I could never have finished this project. Many thanks, Katrina Elizabeth Anderson Yeaw v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................................................1 Gender and Empire ..............................................................................................................2 Gender in Colonial Libya .............................................................................................8 A Concise History of Modern Libya .................................................................................12 The Population of Libya .............................................................................................22 Sources and Methodology ..........................................................................................25 Why Gender Libyan History? ....................................................................................30 Western Historiography .....................................................................................................36 Arabic Historiography .......................................................................................................43 Western and Arabic Historiography in Conversation ........................................................47 Organization ...............................................................................................................48 Chapter 1: Intimacy in Libya from the Late-Ottoman Period to the Collapse of Empire .......51 Sexual Boundaries in Ottoman North Africa .....................................................................59 Imagined Love: Ideas about Sexual Relations in Colonial Libya ......................................65 Love for Hire: Arab Prostitution in Colonial Libya ...........................................................68 Forbidden Love: Concubines in Colonial Libya ................................................................86 Dangerous Love: European Women and Muslim Men .....................................................93 Love under Fascism: Sexuality and Racial Laws ..............................................................98 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................108 Chapter 2: “Girls Destined to Live in an Environment Different from Ours”: Muslim Girls, Schooling and the Limits of the Italy’s Civilizing Project in Colonial Libya ....113 Education in Ottoman Libya ............................................................................................116 vi Girls’ Education in Ottoman Libya ..................................................................................122 Education under Italian Colonialism ...............................................................................127 Liberal Reforms and the End of the Liberal Era ..............................................................143 Fascism and Colonial Education ......................................................................................149 Fascist Intervention and Teaching Girls to be Nurses .....................................................156 The End of Italian Rule and the British Occupation ........................................................162 The Legacy of Women’s Education under Italian Colonial Rule ....................................166 Chapter 3: The Abandoned, the Manumitted and the Mobile: Girls’ Missionary